Monday, June 30, 2014

Nathans was an American import who played with the Perth Heat during the 2013-14 ABL season. Nathans had spent 2011 and 2012 playing in independent leagues before being signed by the Baltimore Orioles. In 2013 he played for the Delmarva Shorebirds in the A level South Atlantic League. In 2014 he has graduated to the high A Frederick Keys in the Carolina League.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Phillies. Twins. Twins. Having already been signed and released previously by Philadelphia and Minnesota, Van Steensel was once again signed by the Twins in February of this year, and is playing for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Twins' Classl A Midwest League affiliate. Van Steensel spent the 2013-14 ABL season playing for the Sydney Blue Sox - his fourth straight season with them.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Stuart is a Perth born player who spent 2013 playing in the USA with the North Iowa Area Community College. He returned to Australia to make his ABL debut in the 2013-14 season, playing for the Perth Heat.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Davis is one of those players who seems to have generated a bit of confusion online. There seems to be several sites that mix up Cubs affiliated player Taylor Davis and Fort Hays State University player Tayler Davis, even including Taylor Davis' current team, the Tennessee Smokies, and the ABL website, which has Taylor's details, but with Tayler's photo.

From what I can gather, Tayler (spelled with an "e") Davis who was on the 2013-14 Canberra Cavalry roster played for Fort Hayes State University between 2010- 2013. He is a relief pitcher. The Taylor (spelled with an "o") Davis is a catcher and is playing in the minors for Chicago Cubs and has not had anything to do with the Cavalry.

The funny thing is, is that neither Tayler or Taylor Davis actually ended up playing in the ABL. I'm not sure the reason why, but although Tayler Davis was on the Cavalry roster at the start of the season and the first three home series, he didn't end up playing any games during that time. I do have some shots of him suited up in Cavalry uniform, so I thought I'd include a card design for him.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Grendell is a rookie level player from the Baltimore Orioles who played with the Perth Heat during the 2013-14 ABL season. After the 2012 season, Grendell tested positive for a banned substance called Dehydroepiandrosterone, a form of steroid hormone, and received a 50 game suspension for the start of the 2013 season.. He played the latter part of 2013 for the GCL Orioles, with some seeing his time at the Heat as the chance to make up game time for the suspension earlier in the year.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Flores is an American import who played with the Melbourne Aces during the 2013-14 ABL season. Flores spent 9 years playing independent level baseball between 1998 and 2013. There was a gap of playing between 2001 and 2007 where he had a long and successful stint as athletic director and head coach of the Western New Mexico University's softball program. His father's death in 2006 spurred him to return to baseball despite his age. In 2013 he played with the Amarillo Sox of the American Association prior to joining Melbourne.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Pugliese spent four seasons in the LA Angels farm system between 2008 and 2011, reaching double A level. After being released in 2011, he spent the remainder of the season playing for UGF Fortitudo Bologna in the Italian Baseball League. He returned back to Bologna in 2012 and 2013 before joining the Canberra Cavalry for the 2013-14 ABL season.

Pugliese had the distinction of playing in the 2013 Asia Cup as many of his Cavalry team mates did ... except that he was playing for Italian champions Bologna, and not the Cavalry. Pugliese also played for the Italian national team at the 2013 World Baseball Classic, although American born, he qualified by his Italian heritage.

Pugliese performed well as a middle reliever but left the Cavalry just before the 2013-14 ABL finals to take up a role as athletics director in the higher education system in Deltona, Florida.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Brechbuehler is an American import who played with the Brisbane Bandits during the 2013-14 ABL season. He spent the previous two seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system, playing 2013 with the Vancouver Canadians in the low A level Norwest League before being released in late Sep 2013. He managed to pick up a relief pitching gig with the Bandits fro 2013-14, before returning to Canada in 2014 to play with Les Capitales de Quebec of the independent Canadian-American Association.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Davis is an American import who played with the Adelaide Bite during the 2013-14 ABL season. Davis had previously been drafted by the San Francisco Giants and spent 2007 and 2008 with their minor teams before being released. He then spent the next 5 seasons playing for the Lake Erie Crushers in the independent Frontier League.

Davis was playing club ball in Adelaide and received a call up by the Bite in a major late-season roster shake up. Davis only ended up playing 4 games for the Bite over the 3 series he was with the club, and one of those was as a pinch runner, so he was used sparingly off the bench, but still is able to claim to have played baseball Down Under at the highest level.

About This Site

This site contains baseball cards that I have created using my own designs and photos (unless otherwise noted). They are not licenced by the ABL, the respective teams or players. The card designs I have made are for entertainment purposes only. No copyright or intellectual property infringement is intended, only a desire to help promote Australian baseball. Upshot of this is that whilst I enjoy doing this for fun, these cards aren't for sale, and exist only as a part of my private collection.

Both the Australian Baseball League and the respective teams have started releasing their own baseball cards. I will try and document the information about these official cards as they are released, in addition to displaying my own custom made cards.